


Our Mistakes, They Were Bound To Be Made. But I Promise You I'll Keep You Safe.

by coruscantspark



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Alcohol, Emotional Shutdown, Gen, Magical Experiments, allegories for self harm, astrid makes a poison, blumendrei, eadwulf is a protector, lets kill trent, yussa's collection of broken empire wizards
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-14
Updated: 2021-02-14
Packaged: 2021-03-14 19:06:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,524
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29423526
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/coruscantspark/pseuds/coruscantspark
Summary: Astrid and Eadwulf have plans, they just need to survive long enough to make them work.
Comments: 14
Kudos: 80





	Our Mistakes, They Were Bound To Be Made. But I Promise You I'll Keep You Safe.

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Teramina](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Teramina/gifts).



> A gift for the Critmas/Valentines Fic exchange for teramina, hope you like it!

They are silent when they finally leave the estate. Eadwulf tucks Astrid’s arm into the bend of his elbow. They walk calmly along the road, nodding at other people walking about. The cold wind buffets them to nearly a standstill, Astrid’s skirts wrapping around her ankles, Wulf’s coat billowing behind him. 

They continue on, Wulf pulling Astrid a little closer and quickening their pace, just slightly. They reach the front of Astrid’s house and Wulf’s hand lingers in hers a moment as he helps her up the steps to her home. Their eyes meet and she answers the question in his eyes by tightening her grip in his, pulling him alongside her. She unlocks the door, the tremor in her hands only perceptible to the one who knows to look. His eyes linger on her hands before looking back at the placid face betrayed only by the tightness of the eyes and jaw he has trained himself to notice. The cold skitters across their necks and pushes them inside of the silent house. Wulf closes the door quietly, not wanting to break the stillness. He engages the locks and Astrid walks farther into the entryway. 

A halfling man hastens in and takes their coats.

“Can I bring anything from the kitchens, my lady?”

Astrid shakes her head and replies softly, “No, Merric, we’ll manage. You’re dismissed for the evening. Regular schedule tomorrow.”

Merric bows, turns, nods at Wulf who is now leaning against a pillar, before slipping quietly from the room. Wulf tracks his movements with a sharp eye that doesn’t match the relaxed, nearly bored posture he presents. Once he is certain they are alone, he turns his attention to the woman still standing in the middle of the room. She sways a moment and he quickly moves to be behind her, steady hand at her back. He can see the tension in her slim shoulders, the tremor getting steadily more noticeable. 

He leans down and whispers, “Not yet.”

Astrid blinks out of the trance she was in and turns her head to him, a blank stare.

He moves, circling around to her front and offers a hand. “Not here.”

She looks at his hand for a long moment before taking it with a heavy exhale and allows herself to be pulled towards the stairs and up towards her suite.

Wulf goes through the elaborate motions of locking her door before surveying the room. A small whisper lights the sconces on the walls and he tries to keep his footfalls quiet as he walks to where Astrid is standing. She’d managed to unbutton her vest, but her hands- Wulf curses Ikithon mentally as he grabs her shaking hands firmly between his. They’re incredibly cold and he brings them close to his chest, massaging them briskly to generate some warmth. 

Casting with a nearly silent whisper, he summons a spectral servant to start a steaming bath and go in search of Astrid’s softest clothes. When her fingers slowly curl in, grasping his shirt, he carefully releases her and makes quick work of the buttons of her blouse and skirt. She steps away from him shrugging out of the shirt, letting the skirt fall as it may while moving towards the bed and standign in her chemise and corset, shivering slightly. 

Astrid stands shivering trying to piece together what happened that evening. Her mind had gone blank, unable to process all that had happened that evening after Bren and his friends disappeared down the street. As the events of dinner and after slowly trickle back in, she's aware of Wulf's steady presence by her side. She can't get her fingers to obey. But then there's Wulf, warming her hands, grounding her. 

She needs his strength tonight. 

She knows he gives it freely. 

The ache in her throat when she sees the concerned face of her dearest friend is what realigns her world and begins to unlock the ice in her mind. 

_ Weak, selfish stupid girl. _

She flinches away from the cruelly familiar mocking voice in her head and takes more of his strength, burrowing into the warmth he offers. She hears Wulf casting, hears her bath being prepared and her wardrobe rustled through. She feels the weight of her vest, half removed and knows she  _ should _ stand on her own now. She should strengthen her spine herself and tell him that he can leave. She'll be fine now and she's sorry she slipped again. 

Her breathing evens out and the ice that had spread to her body melts. She looks up from where she's surely wrinkled his shirt in her fingers, finally meeting eyes full of devotion and understanding and knows he's not going anywhere tonight, even if she ordered him to leave. 

His face crinkles in a smile and he lets go of her hands, carefully untucking and unbuttoning her blouse. He stands there patiently until she feels she can't take it any longer and she lets go, letting the clothes fall wherever they may and reaching blindly for the foot of her bed for something to steady her. Shivering, she tries to remain calm. She hears Wulf sigh and begin picking up her discarded clothes and very precisely shaking the wrinkles out and folding them in such a familiar and particular way that unbidden memories of many nights so long ago resurface and her breath catches and she sags against the bed, a sob escaping her throat. Wulf is suddenly there, scooping her into his lap and holding her close as she cries. 

“That’s it, B,” He murmurs against her ear, allowing himself to use his childhood nickname for her here in the privacy and security afforded by her home. “Let it out. You’re safe here.”

His reassuring voice just makes her cry harder. The room is silent, aside from the splashing of another pitcher of hot water into the bath and the occasional small gasp from Astrid.

They’d all learned long ago how to cry without making a sound. 

Eventually the crying slows and her head droops against his shoulder. He stands them up with a grunt and, fetching a handkerchief from a pocket, he hands it to her and moves to untie the corset. She holds the cloth in her hands, running it through her fingers softly before wiping her tears. 

Wulf turns to look through the clothing options his unseen servant had pulled out and grabs a nightgown. Shaking with exhaustion, Astrid undoes the front busk and tosses the corset in the general direction of a chair. She pulls the chemise off dropping it to the floor and a laugh escapes her at the exasperated grumble from Wulf when he turns around and sees the new mess she created. With a smile he continues to grumble under his breath as he shoves the nightclothes at her and goes to place the discarded clothing in its proper spots. 

As he folds and fusses, Astrid slips into the gown and goes to double check the locks on the windows and then moves to the door. She checks the entrance to her research lab and goes back to the windows. She goes to check the door again and instead sees Wulf pulling a settee over in front of the door and settling into it, presumably for the night and feels tears well up again. She stands there, feeling a little lost before continuing to the door and checking the locks around Wulf. His eyes don’t leave her face and he reaches up to catch a rogue tear. Her eyes dart over to the bed for a moment before she curls up on the settee with him, head pillowed on his knee.

Wulf lets the last light blink out and waits for her breathing to slow before dismissing the unseen servant. The bath can be reheated in the morning. Shifting slightly to get comfortable, his mind goes over the events of the evening, while running his fingers through Astrid’s hair, hoping she manages to sleep tonight. His chest aches at seeing Bren again. Caleb. 

_ Caleb, Caleb, Caleb. His name is Caleb now.  _

Shocking, really, how quickly the world spun out of control before slipping right into place when faced with the old, yet familiar. Carefully chosen words, glances exchanged with terrified eyes, that soft voice speaking with such conviction. For so long, his only charge had been to keep Astrid alive and safe. In a matter of moments, the smaller man had wormed his way back under his banner of protection. Wulf sighs into the silence. He can’t protect them both no matter how much he wants to. And from the looks of thinly disguised fury, disgust, and mistrust from the formidable group his old friend travels with now, Caleb certainly doesn’t need his protection anymore. Probably wouldn’t even accept it if offered. 

_ Too bad, Ermendrud. _

He sees the yearning in Astrid’s eyes. Feels the pull in his own heart. Knows Caleb would come up with a better plan, or at least a way to deflect the suspicion onto someone else. Caleb always knew what to do faster and better than Wulf ever could have. He just slowed his two geniuses down. Either way, he had to keep Caleb out of this and far away from them.

He grits his teeth remembering the last time they'd had a bad night like this. Astrid had been visited by a recently resurfaced Bren - Caleb - and after he’d left she’d broken down, fighting to go after him, begging Wulf to go and bring him back and let him help. They needed his help, she’d said, they weren’t strong enough to do this on their own. 

He’d had to restrain her frantic form with all of his strength, harshly talking her down, ‘ _ He is safest away from us. Suspicion will fall on him as a matter of course but if he's seen with us, they hang him before they even sniff our direction.’  _

That night, his vigil at the door was more to keep her in, rather than keeping their nightmares out. That night, he’d never hated being right more.

He looks down to see Astrid finally sleeping peacefully. Tipping his head back against the door his thoughts form a prayer.

_ Matron, guide our hands and research, that we might finish it soon. She can’t take much more of this.  _

_ I can’t take much more of this. _

He waits five more minutes counting the heartbeats the way Caleb used to before gently scooping Astrid into his arms and placing her in bed. Returning to the settee, he curls into himself, digs his fingernails sharply into his arms just to  _ feel _ and finally lets himself cry into the night. 

____________________________________________

Wulf turns his collar up and walks faster against the cold wind. Astrid’s message had been short and cryptic even for her. Hunching further into his coat, he skips up the steps and knocks loudly on the door. Merric is quick to usher him inside. Wulf is in the process of getting the winter layers off, when a disheveled Astrid appears at the top of the stair. Wulf blinks. Her hair is a mess, her vest is gone, her shirt is ink splattered and untucked. 

The only time she allows herself this much dishevelment is on the bad days when she’s shut down. Shaking the coat completely off, without a single care for decorum or the distressed noise Merric makes behind him, he strides to the base of the stairs, eyes locked onto her with concern.

A huge smile breaks across Astrid’s face as she pushes messy hair behind her ear. Wulf feels his heart stop and then race. He steadies himself on the banister and the blood roars in his head. Stumbling up the stairs, he grabs Astrid’s hands. 

Bowing his head over them he closes his eyes and whispers, “It’s done?”

Still smiling, she nods and pulls him after her into her suite and through the magical doorway that leads to her other  _ secret _ laboratory. He stumbles after her, avoiding crashing into any of the furniture, crates, and stacks of books that lay strewn around the floor. Thinking-Astrid was a dangerous being. On-the-verge-of-a-breakthrough-Astrid was even more so, but with extra messiness. He carefully picks his way over to the table where vials are sitting in a box.

Astrid is tying her hair up, having already donned the apron and sitting on her chair. Pushing off of the wall she rolls over to the table, Wulf automatically reaching out to stop her momentum. She pulls out three different notebooks and casts a quick light inside the black glass lantern. 

“Our friend had one last ingredient that made it work. He has a colleague nearby apparently that is a formidable alchemist and has experience containing magical effects inside of a potion. They were able to put their separate research notes and experiences together and send over some ingredients and brewing methods that they hypothesized would possibly work. They all got close, but none held onto each specific component of the contingency plans I needed to put in place. Until the last one and I remembered timing. Remember how Caleb was always so precise with his timing and as a result his potions and spells stayed consistent?”

Wulf looks up at the mention of their absent friend, ignoring the pang in his chest. They’d both been working on calling him by his chosen name. They’d spoken it between them, the morning after the dinner, agreeing that they would call him by his new name until told otherwise. The clenching of Master Ikithon’s jaw when they said Caleb rather than Bren was an simply added bonus. 

Astrid dims the other lights in the room except for the special glass lantern on the table which causes the hidden scripts on the notebooks to glow. She taps at them for Wulf to take a look before pushing off the table and rolling over to the other side of the room to begin undoing the intricate lock on a wardrobe. 

Wulf leans over the notebooks piecing together the jumbled notes and Astrid’s terrible handwriting. He has enough alchemical knowledge to keep up at first but she loses him once he flips the page and her alchemy equations start blending with spell equations. He recognizes the glyphs for illusion and transmutation but can’t piece together what she was building here with all of the advanced alchemical equations breaking up the spells. Not to mention they’re spread across multiple pages and notebooks. He’s pulled on his reading glasses and is comparing the glyphs to his own spellbook when she tugs him over to the wardrobe she’d unlocked. She lets the lights come back up and motions at the opened wardrobe. 

It’s empty.

He looks over at her expectant, excited face. “B, there’s nothing there.”

She rolls her eyes. “Try harder Wulf, honestly.”

He resists the urge to reach into the wardrobe, knowing just about anything could be in there and instead casts See Invisibility on himself and sees a pile of dirt in the bottom of the wardrobe. He steps closer and sees that the dirt is actually a familiar gray dust he has created before. It disperses a bit with the air currents created by his movement.

He whirls around and looks at Astrid, shocked. She smiles again and nods bursting into laughter when he rushes her and twirls her around in a hug. He sets her down and paces, hands buried in his hair as he laughs in disbelief. 

He looks back at her. “And you’re sure this will work on a person? What did you test on?”

She pulls a notebook from the apron pocket and hands it to him. “Simulacrum. The subject took the potion and immediately became paralyzed as a result of the toxin and a minute later turned invisible and the entire room enveloped in silence. Then the disintegration began.”

Wulf looks up from her experiment notes. “Began?”

“Full distentagration took 30 minutes.”

“Ghastly. To watch yourself disintegrate.” He studies her over the book carefully. She rubs at her arms, scratching softly.

“Perhaps. But necessary,” she looks into the distance unseeing. “He’ll suffer. That’s what matters.”

Wulf puts a hand on her shoulder. She raises her hand to rest atop it. He decides to not push it tonight and continues, “Antidote?”

“Non-existent. I haven’t figured out how to tether a counterspell into a potion yet. The poison would be neutralized by a restorative spell, but the purpose of the other mixed in spell contingencies is to not be curable, detectable, or reversible.”

“Taste? Odor? Color?”

“None. The invisibility takes care of that. The disintegrate  _ might _ cause a small smell of dust but what home doesn’t have a bit of dust?”

Wulf closes the book,“Is there a way to resist it?”

Astrid grins. “Even if there was, the poison I’ve been dosing him with for the last year has nullified that.”

Wulf pulls her into another hug, resting his chin on her head. “When do we do it?”

She sighs. “Soon. I don’t know how stable the mixture is. But I can’t wait for further tests. This is costly to make and test. Both components and spells. I can’t take much more of him either,” she looks up at him, resting her chin on his chest. “Is everything ready? For us to leave?”

“I’ve been granted access to a teleportation circle to our friend’s tower. We’ll be able to hide there while we decide where to go. He’s assured me the entire structure is unable to be scryed upon. It is near a port, we have plenty of options. We have our amulets. Our bag is on me at all times. We’ve been preparing for this for years, B. You had the hard job, I’m just the bodyguard.”

Astrid frowns at that but doesn’t argue about it today and instead takes a steadying breath and steps away. “I know. I just worry.”

She moves to the desk and carefully packs away the three other vials into a case and locks it up, tucking it into her bag. “I’ll find out what his schedule is tomorrow.”

She turns to see Wulf holding a parchment. “Ludinus has a meeting with him tomorrow evening. We could do it after.”

Astrid freezes. “Tomorrow? We could be free tomorrow?”

Wulf nods. He watches a myriad of emotions run across her voice before the mask falls into place. 

“Very well. Tomorrow then.”

She walks out of the lab and waits for Wulf to exit as well before dismissing it. She looks back at him. “Warn our friend. I’ll see you in the morning.”

Eadwulf recognizes the dismissal for what it is and nods. Before he leaves, he places a hand on her shoulder again. “Are you okay on your own tonight?”

He can feel the tension in the small shoulders and feels the way she’s starting to shake. Her eyes close and she raises her chin. “If you want us to be successful, do not ask me that until we no longer breathe the air of the Empire.”

Wulf withdraws reluctantly with a soft goodbye and heads toward his own home. Settling into his study, he pours a glass to help with the shakes and forces himself to concentrate. He scrawls out a message to prepare their ally of their impending arrival, and quickly casts Sending. 

“Master Errenis, we’ll be arriving tomorrow evening, late. Ms. Beck’s experiments were successful, thanks in part to your input.”

“Ah Eadwulf, good to hear. I’ll let my staff know to expect you.”

Wulf sits in the dark, continuing to drink, grappling with the reality the next day will bring. They’d dreamed of this day for so long and now that it was here...shouldn’t he feel more excited? Why is it sadness that fills his mind as his alcohol-slowed brain dances across his memories? Eventually he finds himself drifting off in his chair and dreaming of times long gone - a dance, a laugh, a smile, a prank, a broken scream. The scream wakes him and he sits up, heart racing, blinking in the dark trying to determine if it was real or not.

He wipes new tears away and before the last dredges of his rational mind can talk himself out of it, goes through the familiar motions of Sending once more this time with a specific redhead in mind. __

“Stay out of the Empire, Bren. At least for a few days. It won’t be safe for you here.”

That voice that haunts his dreams returns, “Wulf? What are you talking about? Is something wrong, can we help?”

Wulf snorts and stumbles drunkenly to his bed, pretending in the quiet dark that he’s back at school before Ikithon and Bren is just in the next bed over and if Wulf concentrates just hard enough he swears he can hear his best friend’s steady breathing one bed over.

__________________________

Caleb stretches and blinks at the darkened room he’s been studying in. He’d taken refuge at Tidespeak Tower this afternoon when the rest of the group had paired off to do other things in Nicodranus, embracing the brief moment of peace and relative security offered by the beautiful city. Plucking up his own courage, he’d offered his services to Yussa as an assistant for the day, hoping to distract himself from Wulf’s cryptic message the night before. Yussa had smirked, led him to a room full of books and just left him there. Tea and snacks had arrived periodically that Caleb had absentmindedly picked at while reading. 

The door opens again and Yussa walks in. “Pleasantly spent evening?”

Caleb hurries to stand. “Yes, Master Errenis. Thank you for allowing me access.”

Yussa nods and opens the door wider. “I am expecting company later this evening, Mr. Widogast, and the hour has grown later than I thought, so if your research is at a stopping point?” He trails off with an expectant look.

Caleb nods and quickly gathers up his notes and slips past him out the door. They’re descending the stairs when the sound of a teleportation circle activating stops them. Caleb looks at Yussa curiously and sees the normally calm face morph into mild panic and fear. Yussa picks up his pace and calls over his shoulder, “Stay here, please, Mr. Widogast.”

“Is everything alright?” Caleb questions moving to follow a few steps and mentally running over the spells he’d prepped for the day.

“Just stay there!”

Caleb frowns but obeys, fidgeting with the rock in his pocket. Debating internally, he summons Frumpkin, still in the shape of a spider from their last reconnaissance mission. Leaning against the wall, pretending to read his notes, he sends Frumpkin down the stairs to go see what is going on. 

As Frumpkin rounds the corner and Caleb is able to get a look at what had alarmed Yussa, Caleb’s legs fall out from under him and he snaps Frumpkin back to himself. He sits down hard on the stairs, breathing heavily. The murmur of voices grows louder under him and he forces himself to stand and walk unsteadily down the stairs. A concerned Yussa and Wensforth are fussing over a wounded Astrid and Eadwulf who are leaning on each other weakly. Wulf stiffens and shoves everyone behind him, hearing Caleb’s footsteps on the stairs, a dagger appearing in his hand but freezes when Caleb’s face registers.

“Bren? What are you doing here?” Astrid’s voice is low and Caleb’s breath leaves him in a rush as it washes over him. Then he recognizes the pain tightening her voice and he stumbles down a few more steps, stopping short when Eadwulf shifts to block, raising the dagger.

“Why are you here, friend?” Wulf’s voice is hard, dagger steady.

Caleb keeps himself relaxed, hands far from pockets and forces his voice to level out steady and soothing. “I am the occasional student of Master Erranis, when our travels bring us to the coast. He was kind enough to take me on, offering our group a safe haven should we need it. He leant me his library for the afternoon.”

Wulf’s eyes dart to Yussa for confirmation. 

Yussa gently places a hand on Wulf’s arm, “Mr. Widogast is here in a similar capacity to you and Ms. Beck. Please, let's all go sit down and tend to wounds. There will be time for explanations after.”

Wulf relaxes slightly and the dagger vanishes as he slumps against the wall, strength leaving with the tension of the moment. Astrid turns to follow Yussa and stumbles slightly, catching herself on the wall and sucks in a breath, bracing her ribs with the other hand. Next to her, also breathing heavily, Wulf closes his eyes willing himself to have the strength to move. Caleb vacillates on the stairs for a heartbeat before descending to stand before them. They consider each other for a moment before Caleb shakes his head and reaches for Wulf’s arm, slinging it over his shoulders and bracing the bigger man’s weight against him with a soft grunt. Once he’s sure they’re steady, he reaches for Astrid, who was already shifting his direction to brace under his free arm. They move slowly toward the sitting room Yussa had walked into, shuffling carefully to not jar injuries and carefully navigating the doorframe, Wulf’s head lolling over to rest momentarily atop Caleb’s, Astrid’s cold hands gripping tightly to Caleb’s. 

Caleb forces memories of school nights long ago, where this shuffling walk was a nightly dance they’d grown all too used to, and instead leads the trio to one of the available couches and pauses, bracing his and Eadwulf’s weight and supporting Astrid’s gentle descent to the seat. Pivoting, he and Wulf stumble towards the other couch, Caleb falling down on the couch with Eadwulf’s momentum as the man collapses with a grunt of pain. Caleb untangles himself from Wulf’s limp arms and digs through his bag, grabs two healing potions and presses one into Wulf’s hand and stands to move toward Astrid but is stopped by a hand on his arm.

“I’ll be fine, E. Just gotta sit for a moment. You don’t have to give me this,” Eadwulf’s deep voice is soft as he tries to give the potion back. Caleb’s brow furrows and he closes Wulf’s fingers around the vial. 

“You need it, Wulf. Don’t argue or I’ll call my healer friend here and you’ll have one more person with questions and she’s much more persuasive than me,” Caleb says. He tilts his head and grins. “You haven’t called me that in years.”

Eadwulf grumbles under his breath but takes the potion anyways. Astrid takes the other without comment or argument. Caleb hovers between them for a moment before taking a seat in a chair by himself quietly and waits. Wensforth arrives with tea and the silence stretches on as the healing takes place until Yussa finally says, “So were you successful? I was under the impression this was meant to be an undetectable mission.”

Wulf flops an arm over his eyes and snorts. “A bit hard to do that with the patsy shows back up in the middle of the murder they are to be framed for.”

Yussa and Caleb’s eyebrows shoot up.

“You took on Da’leth yourselves and still managed to make it here in one piece?” Yussa questions.

Astrid smiles and smoothes her skirt. “Thanks to Eadwulf, he listened to a command and drank something rather bad for his health. His fate was the same as Trent. Now it is as though they never existed. No one will ever find them.”

Yussa’s impeccable posture sags in shock. “How…” He trails off, shaking his head in disbelief.

“The Matron weaves our destinies, we simply walk in Her favor,” Wulf mumbles from under his arm. “Otherwise, I find it nearly unbelievable that our old schoolmate happens to be in the same place we are after disposing of our old tormentor. Matron’s mysteries, never ceasing.”

Caleb had frozen in shock listening to the conversation happening around him and startles at the mention of himself. He buries his fingers in his hair, trying to piece together the unsaid portions of the evening’s events. 

“He’s...dead?” Caleb whispers.

Astrid looks at him and nods.

“How?”

Her voice shakes, “He was a cocky, self-important old man who forgot how dangerous the children he raised were. He built his own demise and the poison I fed to him erased him from this world forever. No more children sacrificed to the ‘good of the Empire’.”

Caleb gapes in shock as she takes a deep breath and opens her bag. “Your friend. Expositor Lionett. They’re still with the Cobalt Soul, yes?”

Caleb nods jerkily. Eadwulf sits up. Astrid pulls out a stack of notebooks and files. Her grip on them is tight and her eyes scan over them before meeting Eadwulf’s. He nods and pulls out his own stack of files and ledgers.

Astrid’s hands shake as she holds it out to Caleb. “This should be enough evidence to allow the Cobalt Soul’s investigation into the Cerberus Assembly’s actions in inciting a war to be solid and indisputable. As well as some other information about important nobility to begin investigations of their own there.”

Caleb takes it in stunned silence. 

“You’ll understand that we’ve...blocked certain sections for our own protection. We don’t intend to ever set foot in the Empire again. Our exile should be punishment enough.” Astrid says softly, looking down at her bloodied hands.

Eadwulf looks at her with concern and adds, “We won’t be the scapegoats to publicly punish while they sweep this entire thing into the shadows. And we couldn’t allow them to get away with it either. If nothing else, Trent and Ludinus have paid with their lives. We trust that your friend is capable of taking care of the rest.”

Caleb nods looking at the papers in front of him. “She is like a dog with a bone. She won’t let up.”

“Good.” Astrid and Eadwulf say in tandem.

Yussa speaks up again, “You’re sure the deaths can’t be traced to you?”

Astrid flinches and picks at her skirt again. “Their bodies no longer exist, no staff was present, the confrontation with the Martinet, while damaging, was over as quickly as it began and we waited to ensure there were no witnesses.”

Yussa nods. “Their absence will be noticed soon. It’s best for you to lay low and for you,” he looks at Caleb, “to get that into the right hands as soon as possible. Let the investigation control the narrative of their disappearance.”

He sighs and shakes his head, standing up. “Political intrigue was never where I meant to find myself entrenched and yet here I am,” He looks to Eadwulf and Astrid. “Let me be the first to congratulate you on your new freedom. You may stay here as long as you like, I just ask that you not draw attention to my tower while you are here. Wensforth will show you to your rooms. Goodnight.”

The three sit in silence for a moment before Caleb slides to the floor and takes out his amber necklace, placing it on the floor and whispering, “Una.”

Astrid’s breath catches upon hearing the name and seeing the amber expand into five pieces surrounding odds and ends. Caleb carefully places the paperwork they’ve given him into the circle of amber and begins casting again to close it up, Astrid and Eadwulf watching fondly. As he goes to place the amber back around his neck, Caleb notices them watching and flushes. 

“What?”

Astrid smiles slightly. “You were always so talented. To see you create...it gives me hope.”

He smiles back at her, “I’ve learned much in the last year or so.”

“Yeah, neat trick. What was that?” Wulf leans forward curiously. 

Caleb scratches at the back of his neck self-consciously, “Just something I put together during some downtime, absent riddles bouncing in my head that formed into something useful.”

He stands. “I should get back -”

“Stay.” Both voices ring out at the same time as they stand suddenly.

“Please.” Wulf adds softly. 

Astrid reaches for his hand. “Allow us one night of selfishness. We can move on and never interrupt your life again, but just for tonight…” She trails off, not able to meet his gaze.

Caleb looks to Wulf who is watching him with guarded vulnerability in his eyes as he adds, “Just like old times, yeah?”

Caleb looks back to Astrid and tugs her closer, tucking her under his chin and reaching his other hand to Wulf’s arm to pull him in as well. They stand in a quiet embrace for a moment, sharing each other’s strength. Caleb tightens his hold on them both and whispers, “I’ll stay. But promise me you won’t disappear. I cannot protect my family if I don’t know where to find them.”

They’re silent for another moment before he feels them both nodding against him and relaxes. Stepping back, he holds both their faces in each hand and nods. “Good. Good. I’ll stay.”

**Author's Note:**

> (Yeza was the colleague that helped Yussa with the potion research)


End file.
